Olmec Stone Celt with a Carved Face, Middle Preclassic, circa 900-600 BC

"The fiercest manifestation of the supernatural is carved on the heft of effigy axes." (Michael D. Coe, ed. The Olmec World: Ritual and Rulership, Princeton, 1995, p. 197).Stone celts were an elemental agricultural tool that became an elevated symbol of power when they were animated and transformed with carved and incised images. The modified celts were held by rulers to signify their access to supernatural power.

Depictions of the Olmec Supernatural, the mythic deity based on the were-jaguar image who is ultimately connected to maize and rain, are carved in various forms on stone celts, some as full figures, others such as this example, simply by the diagnostic face. Perhaps the most famous example is the Kunz jade axe in the collection of the American Museum of Natural History, New York.

This massive greenstone celt is gently carved with the face of the Olmec Supernatural and incised with the headband of insignia featuring the sprouted maize symbol. The face is still decidedly human, the full parted lips are suggestive of the trapezoidal mouth and the upper lip presses into the base of the nose, the sunken eyes suggest a slight frown. The expanding celt becomes the massive headdress or helmet, divided into tiers. The main element is a bifurcated maize sprout with a larger sprout issuing upward. This overall tripartite element is secured with horizontal bands, the whole is incised with fine lines. Two sets of fine-incised parallel diagonal lines on the bands are similar to the skybands depicted in other Olmec art. The suggestion is the celt represents a tripartite cosmos, the maize as it grows into the sky and the ruler below maintains the harvest. See discussion in Michael D. Coe, ed., ibid., p. 206; for other celts see pp. 201-204, cat. nos. 90-93.